Jean Johansson relishes another walk on the wild side in new series of TV’s Animal Park

JEAN JOHANSSON has obviously never heard the old adage that you should never work with animals or children.

The Scot will be back on our screens when Animal Park returns next week and takes us behind the scenes at Longleat, Britain’s longest-running safari park.

She says: “Well, you know, I was a kids’ TV presenter at the beginning of my career so I must be a glutton for punishment.

“But both are unpredictable and fun so it always makes for good telly, I think.”

Spill the beans, Jean, who gives you the most trouble, children or wildlife?

“Oh, that is so tough,” the mum-of-one laughs.

“I’d have to say the animals just because kids have some understanding of what they’re saying and doing, and the animals are more unpredictable.

“We’re working with wild animals and you can never, ever forget that. Luckily all our animals are great and all our filming went really well but you always have to keep it at the back of your mind how unpredictable they are and how dangerous they can potentially be.”

Animal Park will be on every weekday morning for the next three weeks and rejoining Jean are Ben Fogle and Kate Humble who, to Animal Park viewers, are like an old, married screen couple.

Jean says: “Yes, they’re old hands. Kate and Ben have been there for years, they’ve got long, established relationships with the keepers and they’re like part of the furniture.

“They come in and just pick up where they left off and I know they really look forward to coming back here.

“They’ve got such busy lives away from Animal Park – Ben’s climbing Mount Everest one minute and on some other crazy adventure the next so it’s amazing he keeps coming back, that just shows you the pull of the show.

“This is my third year on Animal Park so now I feel like an old hand and I’m very comfortable. I’ve eased into it, which is great, and I think I’ve brought a different dimension to it. My first season I was asking all the questions that people at home were asking.

“I didn’t consider myself an animal expert so I think I covered things that were quite basic for the people at home and I think that’s gone down well. All those questions that you might be scared to ask because they might be too easy, I’ll just be straight in there asking: ‘What’s this? Or ‘Why does that animal do that?’

“I’ve built on that so I’m very comfortable now. My knowledge has grown so much and that’s really going to show this time round. And I was in the same country pub I always stay in – it’s good for the filming but it’s not good for my waistline.

“I live on site and if I get up for a run in the morning I can hear the lions, which is great, just knowing there’s a whole other world behind the house at Longleat.”

Us Brits are suckers for animal shows.

“That’s right,” Jean says. “Animal Park’s got a huge demographic – students, mums at home and kids, my seven-year-old loves it.

“And we’ve got guinea pigs on this year, which is so nice because there are so many people sat at home with them.

“That’s the good thing about Animal Park, we could go from silverback gorillas to an animal you could have at home.”

Speaking of silverbacks, sadly we won’t be seeing Longleat’s legendary Nico this year.

“No, and his passing was really sad. Our production team had people who’ve been here from the first series so you can imagine they knew Nico.

“And the gorillas all have unique personalities, you get to know them quite quickly so it was a big loss, especially to the keepers.

“He was iconic, an animal you associate with Longleat.”

Asked what she particularly enjoyed this time round, Jean says: “The lion work we did this year was really amazing. They’re fascinating animals and one of the keepers came up with the idea to play some sound effects to see how they’d react.

“So we set up a huge speaker and played the sounds of buffalo and elephant, and other lions, and it was amazing to see how they react because as soon as they heard the buffalo they were on guard, the females were ready to go and hunt.

“And when we played another lion the alpha male went to the front of the pride to be ready for what might be coming, that blew my mind.

“But it never gets normal, you’re on your lunch break and the next minute you’re feeding a giraffe.

“My favourite is Anne the elephant, who’s just the most human to me in terms of picking up her emotions and what she might be thinking.

“She’s quite mischievous as well, she’ll use her trunk to untie your shoelaces and will play up to you to get a treat.

“And this year I got to give a full-grown silverback his bedtime snack and to get to bottle-feed him his juice and his banana was just amazing to look him in the eye and see him so vulnerable.”

Jean’s not off our screens this summer as she’s also a contestant on Celebrity MasterChef. So should we stick a cheeky fiver on her?

“I can’t tell you a thing,” she says. “But I loved it. It was the best experience of my career. I feel like I flew the flag for Scotland and it’s going to be an excellent series.

“I am a foodie – I love eating it, that’s for sure – but this took me to another level and I learned so much.

“It was terrifying but it was amazing.

“Cooking can be bad enough at the best of times but when you’ve got John Torode and Gregg Wallace standing over you pointing at the clock – give me a lion or a tiger any day over those two – terrifying!”

Animal Park Summer Special can be seen weekday mornings on BBC One from 9.15am starting Monday August 6.